Ramon Julian has made the FA of Bi Herri, Borroka Bat 9a in La Cova de'locell which is his 35th 9a and harder, out of which 11 FA, since 2002. During the last year, he has done seven 9a's and two 9a+' making it his best year ever for the 33 year old. The 159 cm Spaniard has been the best Lead Competition climber in the world during the last ten years.

Two weeks ago, Giuliano Cameroni (16) became the youngest to have done an 8C through The Story of Two Worlds. Since then and despite bad conditions, he has done six 8A's and harder including the flash of The arete with the pocket 8A. In total, he has done 62 boulders and harder the last year which probably just puts him on the Top-10 list in the world. Not bad for being 16 years old.

Resole and get back out there with the newest TX4 Evo

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Keenan Takahashi did the FA of Ego Death (8C) last September a couple of months after he did his first 8C+. "Immediately upon walking up to it, I knew it was something special if it was possible. It’s the sort of thing I’ve dreamed of since I started climbing, steep compression, at my limit, decentl…

50+ days on but no 9b cigar for Midtbö

Magnus Midtbo has now spent some 50+ days over three years and fallen 40 times on the crux of Sharma's Neanderthal 9b in Santa Linya. The biggest obstacle has actually been wet holds and, lately, also temperature up to 25 degrees making it only possible for one evening push per day. (c) Henning Wang Previously, Magnus has done 12 9a's and harder including Ali Hulk sit start extension 9b. For 12 straight years, Magnus has been a very successful competition climber and in 2011 he was #4 in the World Championship. Please give us some insight of your big project? It starts with a 7b+ up to a no hands rest and then it is like a sustained hard 9a up to the crux. The crux is like a 7C+ boulder followed by an 8c to the top where actually Chris fell once. The problem now is that I get wet fingers and hands going into the crux. Having to stop in some of the hardest moves to dry my hands and chalk up costs a lot of energy. In addition I keep getting cuts in several of my fingers causing me to slip out of the holds I´m jumping from on the crux dyno. When I was younger it was more important for me to do routes quickly. Now I find it more interesting to push my limit to see what my body is capable of. It can be a frustrating process but I think I will grow as a climber. What is the next goal once you have done it? There will be a lot of competitions this summer and autumn. I am excited to try Jumbo Love (9b) when I am finished here. I have spent so much time in Spain so it would be nice to have a project in another place.

ABS Nationals LIVE!

Watch LIVE coverage of the 2014 American Bouldering Series National Championships live at 17.00 Euro time, to see the qualification round, semi finals, and finals! Full playbacks available here

By clicking on Crags, you will get a list of all the Crags which have some Left-to-Right topos finished. By scrolling down, you can see which sectors have been sorted and are ready to be down loaded in your 8A topo App. The webmaster has also made it possible to quicker add sectors to all ascents and we can provide you with a special log-in to edit spelling and sectors. In order to create a topo, which takes like 10 - 15 min, log-in here with your normal 8a password. Just drag the routes up and down to create a Left-to-Right topo list.

Karin Magog has done Tequila Sunrise 8a (7c+) in Chulilla. "Sustained start into hard to read crux. Steady head wall to a techy finish - only just made the span!" The 40 year old seems to be in her best shape ever, having done five 8a's during the last month out of which two onsight.

FiveTen - TeamVXi

FiveTen has presented their new extreme ultra light and soft shoe, Team VXi. It comes with their Stealth MI6 that are shaped of behind the toes creating that nice glove feeling. Being a fan of soft shoes, I must say that this one is their best ever and having used it for some months, it is actually quite durable. I have for several years been saying that we need different shoes like golfers use clubs and the Team VXi is a must in every advanced climbers bag. The only very strange thing was in fact that I had to cut off the textile at the top as it otherwise was to hard to get it on and off. However, with just the velcro, this makes the extreme 163 gram even lighter, more rad and more practical.

Based on 2 500 unique votes, we can see that more climbers warm up before they start to climb compared to an identical poll in 2011. Still, however, one third of the climbers start climbing directly. Warming up before climbing? 4 % (5 % in 2011)) NO: Full power directly 29 % (37) NO: Only easy climbing 15 % (19 %) Sometimes/Few minutes 18 % (17) Often/8 minutes 33 % (22) YES: At least 15 min

Alex Honnold has been an 8a member since 2003 with 749 ascents recorded and here is his comment for El Sendero Luminoso, also giving it a personal grade. "Solo! In dos horas. And then another hour to get to the top of El Toro. Amazing experience!"